The Phillies took a 3-0 lead into the eighth inning, but a win was not in store as the bullpen wasted a great performance from the starting pitching and sent the Phillies to a heart-breaking 4-3 loss.

Kyle Kendrick pitched like somebody who had read that their job was in question. After a couple of terrible starts to start the season, Kendrick pitched 8 innings of shutout baseball that included a mere four hits and two walks to go along with a pair of strikeouts, but his night would not finish with a W.

However, Ryan Madson gave people one more thing to talk about. After recording two outs in the ninth, Madson gave up back-to-back home runs to Troy Glaus and rookie slugger, Jason Heyward that tied the game and sent it into extra innings.

With the first batter in the bottom of the 10th inning, Jose Contreras delivered a pitch on a 2-2 count that Nate McLouth dropped right into the right field seats, giving the Braves a 4-3 win, and sending the Phillies to their third straight loss.

The bullpen took the attention off of Kendrick’s great start, allowing three of the final five batters to leave the yard.

The sinker was working in Kendrick’s favor as he was able to put together 14 groundballs. None were bigger than an inning-ending double-play ball off the bat of Troy Glaus that ended the Braves lone threat in the game. With the bases loaded in the fourth, Kendrick got Glaus to send one over to Placido Polanco who quickly turned the 5-4-3 and kept the Braves off the scoreboard for the time being.

On the offensive side of the game, the Phillies bats didn’t do much, but it seemed as if they had down enough after eight innings. Chase Utley put together a 2-5 evening with a pair of RBIs and a run scored. Utley’s run came off an infield single that Ryan Howard managed to push through the infield shift as the ball went off of the glove of Troy Glaus. Polanco also managed to put together another two-hit effort as he saw his batting average rise over .400 again. The only Phillie who didn’t get a hit was Carlos Ruiz, who went 0-4.

Hopefully Roy Halladay can stop the bleeding tomorrow night as all of a sudden the Phillies have dropped three straight and four of their last five games.

About Nick "Beerman" Staskin

Relief Pitching — Phillies have none — real clutch hitting — still lacking — Ryan is becoming more like a “McNabbBaseball Clone” every time I look at him — good but just not great — lacking something that would move him into “the great ones!”

Steve – come on – how can you say that Howard is not great? Do you know how many teams would like to have a cleanup hitter that hits 45 HR’s and 130/140 RBI every year. Everybody, please back off from the ledge. It is really early.

i wanted to be cynical, but five negative comments in a row can’t be had. i’ll just keep repeating “it’s one game in a long season” until the wins roll in again. on the other hand, madson is embarrassing. he’s been reliably mental since lidge started blowing saves last year. still, i trust that a few good wins will grow the pen’s confidence.

Thanks for breaking up the succession of negative comments with platitudes, maxhole. Wish I could rx myself Valium right now. To Scott in D.C. of the prev. thread, Charlie has trouble thinking *in* the box. KK finally shows some stuff; the offense gives us a lead.. Madson should be hanging his head, and probably his likeness will be hanging in effigy somewhere in S. Philly tonight. Before the season began I saw the Braves taking the division. I really hope I’m proven wrong, ’cause – and this is directed at somone named Ruben – yours is really the image to be hanging in effigy. It’s not just anger, it’s disgust.

Forget about drtyjerz and bobby, they are obviously trolls. Come on “THEY SUCK AND WILL FINISH BEHIND THE METS”…”3rd place finish in the NL East this year.” after just 3 losses in a row. Um excuse me IDIOTS, do you recall last season and what the record of each team was. After April, the Phillies were in 4th place. Count that again. FOURTH. that would be BEHIND the Marlins, Braves and Mets. We are TIED for first right now. Either way, this was a HORRIBLE loss. And to think Madson almost didnt sign the contract before last season because we wanted to be a closer. LOL. I would feel bad for whatever team picks him up as a closer.

when the team goes out and lays a turd like they did tonight, expect philly fans to spew some hate. its real, driven by the true feelings that puke-stain performances like tonight’s inspire. that “it’s a long season” positivity after something as ugly as tonight just doesnt do it for me, feels empty.

Sorry, but I really dont think Ruben is to blame at all for this loss. Come on, are you kidding me? We do NOT have the “worst” bullpen in the majors, thats for sure. Not very good right now, but to say “amaro killed a champion in 2 offseasons” means several things. #1, you dont know very much about baseball. #2 you forgot Ruben going out and getting Lee, Ben Fran, AND Pedro (sent Moyer to the bullpen). #3, you completely forgot the Phillies won the NL last year. #4, you forgot the team they lost too was “the best team MONEY can buy”. #5, HE SIGNED ROY HALLADAY TO AN EXTENSION!. If anyone on here bashes Ruben for destroying a champion, or being horrible, you have NO right (thats ZERO right) to cheer on Halladay like he is your god. Annoying yes, but Phylan is correct. Knock it off.

Yoy people are NUTS!! Please, for the love of Christ, calm down everyone. Sh!t like this happens ALLLL the time….look at last year….and we went to the World Series.

You people need to seriously get ahold of yourselves. And BurrGundy, if you’re there, I responded to your childish temper tantrum in the other thread. Grow up. Seriously. All of you are downright embarrassing.

And so what. If it’s a 1-0 loss, then it’s a 1-0 loss. STILL doesn’t mean jacksh!t. We’re STILL the team to beat in this division!! You all need to just relax and appreciate what we DO have….instead of bitching about what we don’t.

FYI for the people about the jump off the bridge, you do realize, if the Phillies win tomorrow, they are back in SOLE possesion of first place right? Didnt think so. Did you also realize the Phillies had a LOSING record at home going INTO the All Star Break. Did you also realize the Phillies had a LOSING records against the Braves last season? I didnt think so. Be pissed, but calm down.

LOL, just checking Chuck. I think it will take Charlie FLIPPING OUT to get this team to buckle down and do what they did in the first week, which is have plate discipline, and reduce striking out. Lets not forget J-Roll is still out. Coincendnce that the Offense died when J-Roll went out? I dont think so. Vid is filling in pretty good as a lead off, and Castro as Short, but I think go back to normal and offense will do better.

Here’s the thing….Lidge comes back…..do you automatically just put him in closing situations?? At fist, I thought no….that you need to ease him back. But, now, unless Madson seriously does a 180….I think Lidge is the guy.

Madson needs to compare this years tapes with some videos of himself from 2008, because his last two seasons have been less than great. Too many walks, too many long balls.

I don’t think it’s a lack of the “closer mentality.” I think perhaps teams have started to figure out his pitching patterns, or maybe he’s tipping his pitches. Whatever the problem is, I hope he gets it straightened out QUICK.

A very good game by Kendrick. I think his first two starts were the anomalies. He won’t pitch very many like this one, but he’ll likely do much better than those two clunkers. He’s not the minor leaguer so many people seem to want him to be. His major league won-loss record is actually quite a bit over .500. Maybe he doesn’t have a lot of strikeouts, but who cares if he wins games.

Let’s be reasonable. This is one loss in the first month of the year with both the Phils and the Braves still trying to find themselves. Tougher losses we’ve seen over the years. This team has the character to overcome it.
With that being said, it should also have the talent to overcome it. Tonight’s loss brings to light the ongoing bullpen issues, as everybody’s said. If the Reds or the Padres are out of the race in a few months, Francisco Cordero or Heath Bell could be on the block – and could be here too. Madson isn’t right for the closer’s role, at least at the moment. The best we can hope for is that Lidge will come back strong. Let’s let that hope carry us through this tough night. If he doesn’t, then the front office can’t hesitate to move on. It seems like a while since the ninth inning was fairly secure – it shouldn’t stay that way if this team wants to be back in the Fall Classic.
When the dust settles – and even if the Phils loses a season’s worth of games like this – I still will love this team, as we all do now.

It is just a shame that the relief pitching blew this one for Kendrick and the team against a team that most Phillies fans love to hate. The win was in the bag. Madson and Contreras threw the ball right down the pike on the home runs. Cannot do that, especially against a hard hitting team like the Braves I agree with those who post that Madson is no closer; he is a setup relief pitcher. Most teams probably would have won that game against the Phils in the same situation facing the poor quality relief pitching that Atlanta seen tonight. Just one, early game but still sad, sad, sad.

Again, a game is just as important whether in April or September. Let me know when I should start caring, and I’ll mark it on my calendar. And highlight the ones when we play our division rivals. There’s a little something amiss as a Phils fan one doesn’t vent after a game like tonight’s. Best you can do is try to sleep it off, but looking at the positives alone is as abnormal as the optimists’ trying to ignore the obvious pain of the game.

I’m as pissed off as the rest of you, but I try to remind myself that winning even 2/3 of the games you play in a season almost never happens. Last season we started far worse, our team wasn’t as good overall, and we still made it to the world series. I don’t see any reason to be genuinely afraid (yet) this year.

great we were up 3-0 – great kendrick could do what he did in atlanta with them playing the nat league champs and loaded for bear! – but clear as day madson does not have what it takes to close – and contraras is not ready for those relief situations either – please, please charlie and rueben figure something out so we dont lose lots of games like this this year and risk disheartening so many and not accomplishing what everyone on this team and in this city hopes to accomplish this year!!

I agree with philsgirl. The loss is not the end of the world but you want to win those games against division rivals and especially against those division rivals who are predicted to be your closest competitors, no matter what part of the season in which they may occur. Granted, the Phillies bullpen is missing a couple of top pitchers but you have to try to step up and nail down these “big” games no matter who is pitching. The offense should have put a few more runs on the board tonight too.